Jennifer Larmore L'Etoile.(Sound Recording Review)

* French arias by Offenbach, Massenet, Auber, Saint-Saens, Berlioz, Gounod, Ravel, Thomas, Chabrier. Texts and translations. Radio Symphonieorchester Wien, Wiener Concertcor, de Billy. Teldec Classics 8573 87193-2

Jennifer Larmore, whose international career began in Nice, and who was recently awarded the honor of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture, delivers an impressive assortment of French arias in L'Etoile. The disc showcases the wide range of Larmore's interpretive powers, as well as her affection for, and comfort within, this repertoire.

The set opens promisingly, with Niklausse's violin aria, a lovely piece that used to be cut regularly from performances of Les Contes d'Hoffmann but is fortunately back in vogue these days. In Muse mode, with an arresting combination of passion and remove, Larmore weaves a spell that would inspire any poet. In the second selection, a spirited reading of Cendrillon's "Enfin, je suis ici," the mezzo's idiosyncratic dark vocal production pops up occasionally, coming in direct conflict with the more forward production she often uses for the French language. Some vowels produce words of great clarity and color, others a throttled sound trapped somewhere in the back of the throat. This vocal duality occurs again and again throughout the disc, and it must simply be accepted as part and parcel of the technique operating here, after which one can get down to the business of enjoying what this artist is doing with the material at hand.

"O Palerme! O Sicile!," a Rossini-style entrance aria from Auber's Zerline, offers quite a showpiece for Larmore's facility with florid writing, featuring as well some impressive high diminuendos. On more familiar turf, the mezzo does her seductive best with Dalila's "Mon coeur s'ouvre a ta voix," eschewing the usual contrived concert ending, Samson's line, which here is ...